Nascente Azul, Bonito MS: a float, a waterfall and a whole day in one place

Nascente Azul combines two things usually kept apart in Bonito: a spring-fed snorkel float and a day-use site with a waterfall, a trail and places to rest. It is the choice if you want to spend the entire day at one address.

What Nascente Azul is

Nascente Azul is a property in the countryside around Bonito organised around a blue-green spring. The float covers the stretch just below where the water surfaces, through dense aquatic vegetation and shoals of fish, on a route of intermediate length — longer than the Aquário Natural, shorter than the Rio da Prata.

What sets it apart is everything around it. Besides the float there is a trail, a waterfall with a pool to swim in, a zipline and a rest area with a restaurant and loungers. That lets you arrive in the morning and leave at the end of the afternoon without repeating an activity.

Why the water looks blue

Water from a limestone spring is colourless, like any other. The blue in the photographs comes from two things: the clarity, which lets light travel through a long column of water before reflecting off a pale bottom, and the physics of water itself, which absorbs the red wavelengths before the blue ones.

The result is that the deeper and cleaner the water, the more blue it returns. That is why springs and sinkholes in the region look turquoise while the same river, shallow and over sand, looks colourless a few metres downstream.

What the float is like

The format is the regional standard: briefing, wetsuit, buoyancy vest, mask and snorkel, then a drift downstream in single file behind the guide. The aquatic vegetation is abundant and in places forms corridors the group passes through. No swimming ability is required.

How to organise the day

The float has a fixed time and the water is clearest early, so it comes first. Afterwards, with the wetsuit handed back, the whole day is open: the trail to the waterfall, a swim, an unhurried lunch and an afternoon in the rest area.

People who reverse that order — day use in the morning, float in the afternoon — usually get water already stirred by earlier groups and arrive tired at the activity that demands the most attention.

For groups where not everyone swims

This is one of the few attractions in the region where someone who is not going to float still has plenty to do: a trail, a waterfall with a pool and a shaded rest area. It solves the classic problem of a family in which one adult has no intention of getting into any river.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to stay all day?

No, but it is the format the place favours. Coming only to float and leave means getting less than the journey is worth.

Nascente Azul or Rio Sucuri?

Sucuri if you want a quick float and another attraction the same day. Nascente Azul if you want to fill the day in one place.

Written by: Adriano Habermann Last updated: September 13, 2026